Fatigue crack growth under anti-plane shear mode deformation

In this paper, the theory of the steady growth of fatigue crack in an infinite medium under the periodic anti-plane remote shear loading has been examined. The criterion of accumulative plastic work for material failure associated with the slip displacement in the fracture process zone of Dugdale type ahead of the crack tip is employed in the analysis. The effect of the locked dislocation in the fracture process zone is considered. Under the assumption that the speed of fatigue crack propagation remains uniform through the fracture process zone, the steady speed of fatigue crack can be expressed as a function of the range of the applied shearing stress and the maximum shearing stress. The effect of the crack size on the fatigue crack speed is discussed. The effect of the finite width of specimen on the speed of fatigue crack speed is investigated. The differences between the present work and the previous studies on fatigue crack speed are discussed.